Running windows on a Linux Open Suse System

[ilugd]

I am running Open Suse 10.2 and was just wondering if it is possible to use some virtualization software to run windows. I was thinking of VMware but I find no free version for Linux. Xen doesn't support windows. Is there some other freeware version? I am sick of restarting my system over 20 times a day and my boss has begun to enquire why i need to restart so often to check out the softwares sent from our compiling station at Kerala. That often leads to a pointless lecture from my side on what Linux is, why I use it, how in 5 years probably he too would need to use it and he will be calling me for help and so forth. The poor guy hasn't yet gotten around to asking me how to spell Linux. (I like one thing about windows, it is easier for nitwits to spell. Gosh! I AM feeling harassed)

 

[praka123]

windows in Linux..hmm qemu will it helps...also win4lin..i dont know its free or what
*www.debian-administration.org/articles/40

 

[ilugd]

thanks, let me check it out

 

[eddie]

VMware Server is free for download and use
*www.vmware.com/download/server/

 

[mehulved]

Yeah vmware server is good and there's also virtualbox. I haven't tried windows on any of them, but it seems to be supported in both.
I have heard good things about virtualbox, but unfortunately it has some problems with FreeBSD 6.2 and PC-BSD, both of which I am trying.
Check for both in your repositories.

 

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

I am running Open Suse 10.2 and was just wondering if it is possible to use some virtualization software to run windows. I was thinking of VMware but I find no free version for Linux. Xen doesn't support windows. Is there some other freeware version? I am sick of restarting my system over 20 times a day and my boss has begun to enquire why i need to restart so often to check out the softwares sent from our compiling station at Kerala. That often leads to a pointless lecture from my side on what Linux is, why I use it, how in 5 years probably he too would need to use it and he will be calling me for help and so forth. The poor guy hasn't yet gotten around to asking me how to spell Linux. (I like one thing about windows, it is easier for nitwits to spell. Gosh! I AM feeling harassed)

y don't u do things the other way round , coz VMWare Player is free for windows n u can run Linux at almost 100% speed in VMWare

 

[ilugd]

thanks eddie, i am right now installing winxp though i think i will have to install that again since during configuring i entered nat somewhere and it found two subnets and added that for host networking or something. I just had a query. Will I be able to activate it and will it make a difference to my originally installed winxp? or will i simply have to keep installing xp once every month? I won't activate this thing till i am sure it won't break something.

 

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

thanks eddie, i am right now installing winxp though i think i will have to install that again since during configuring i entered nat somewhere and it found two subnets and added that for host networking or something. I just had a query. Will I be able to activate it and will it make a difference to my originally installed winxp? or will i simply have to keep installing xp once every month? I won't activate this thing till i am sure it won't break something.

simple , if it doesn't activate , make a backup of your XP VMWare Virtual HDD , n then simply restore it when one month ends , will hardly take 10 mins

 

[eddie]

Will I be able to activate it and will it make a difference to my originally installed winxp?

You will be able to activate it but considering the fact that without calling Microsoft...you can activate your copy only a limited number of times...you will be using one of your attempts to do it.

I won't activate this thing till i am sure it won't break something.

You can create a snapshot from VMware and roll back after a month. That will save you the time taken during installation.

 

[ilugd]

oh.. snapshot? First time I heard of it. That's great. But won't windows check the date or something?

 

[eddie]

I have no idea about the date issue. You can try by changing HOST operating systems time. Make it a month from now and then see if the snapshot works.

 

[ilugd]

ok will do that. Another issue is how do I enable sound from windows media player in vmware server to my speakers. Is it even possible?

 

[mehulved]

I guess you need vmware tools to enable sound in the guest OS.

 

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

yeah , VMWare willl give you a message in bottom left portion if VMWare tools r not installed .

 

[ilugd]

no, vmware tools has been installed. But the message when it asked me to install said that only video and mouse would improve if i installed. Anyway vmware tools is installed and media player says no sound card in installed. There is not settings vmware also to allow access to the sound card.

thanks, figured it out. Needed to stop xp guest machine, then goto guest os summary page in vmware and there add the physical sound card. Works now

 

[nileshgr]

If you want to run only windows programs, then you should install wine the win emulator. It will fool windows programs that they are running under windows but in reality they run on linux. I don't know the installer command for Open Suse. In fedora i will type

 yum install wine

this will require an active net connection to download wine about 9.9 mb for Fedora. u can alternatively download wine from their site: www.winehq.org/site/download

 

[mehulved]

But, still wine isn't 100% compatible with windows and I guess it won't be so any time soon.

 

[ilugd]

uh.. no.. I already installed wine but got bogged down by all that command line and stuff. When I tried to install irfanview i got an mfc42.dll not found. I then tried installing office and that worked fine. I then figured since office installs all usually available dlls irfanview installer should work. I guess that made my patience wear a bit thin and i threw wine out.

 

[mehulved]

You should have checked some docs first, on how to install it.
*frankscorner.org/index.php?p=irfanview398
Always remember to check frankscorner for installing apps on wine.
WINE's site reports that 4.xx version also works but it has some 4 bugs. None of them are major.

 

[nileshgr]

But, still wine isn't 100% compatible with windows and I guess it won't be so any time soon.

Yes. It is not compatible with all progs. But they say

WINE IS STILL UNDER TESTING AND DEVELOPMENT

I have never used wine but heard about it much.